A weird bit of rosterology here. After all their cuts – many of whom were claimed off waivers by other teams – the Packers retained only two running backs (Ryan Grant and Brandon Jackson) on their roster heading into Week 1. That includes the 53-man roster and the eight-man practice squad roster.

Strange, eh?

RB Kregg Lumpkin was claimed off waivers by the Buccaneers, leaving only Grant and Jackson behind, though James Starks, placed on the PUP list, could be back after Week 6.

The Packers, however, do have plenty of fullbacks – Korey Hall, John Kuhn and Quinn Johnson. That means Green Bay has more blockers for running backs than actual running backs.

Despite the fact that Ryan Grant is both overrated and average (he is, seriously), and despite the fact that the Packers pass a whole lot (and seemingly even more the red zone, signed disgruntled Grant fantasy owners), Green Bay still needs him in their offensive gameplan.

Which makes it slightly disconcerting that he left the Packers' preseason game with an apparent head injury, which could possibly be considered a concussion.

Grant suffered the injury on a helmet-to-helmet hit from the Browns' Sheldon Brown and walked quite woozily to the sidelines, where he was attended to by trainers.

The Packers obviously haven't classified the injury as anything in particular, but it would be surprising if there wasn't at least a discussion of "concussion-like symptoms," which force Grant to miss some extended preseason action.

At the time he left, it was considered unlikely he would return to Satuday's game.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Greg A. Bedard has an interesting take today on the Packers duel with CB Tramon Williams. Though it’s unclear if the Packers reduced their tender offer to the restricted free agent after he didn’t sign ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, what is known is that the Packers are in a tough spot here.

As Bedard points out in this story , Green Bay doesn’t want to anger its best defensive back, particularly since Al Harris is 35 and coming off knee surgery and since the rest of the Packers DBs are unknown quantities. Yet, Williams also stands to lose millions of dollars in compensation if Green Bay actually decided to reduce that offer to 110 percent of his 2009 salary.

Bedard has an interesting theory why Williams, entering his fourth season in the league, is willing to play salary chicken. It’s because the Packers gave RB Ryan Grant a four-year, $20 million contract in 2008. As Bedard writes:

Up until that point, the Packers had been decidedly disciplined in how and when and to whom they gave contract extensions to. It was a big reason why they got in good cap shape in such a hurry after Mike Sherman.

The players that got new deals had put in their time, signed their tenders and just played along with the program.

But the decision by (Russ) Ball and Ted Thompson to do that deal then with Grant eroded much of what the Packers had done previously

So when the Packers gave Grant that deal, after his first accrued season in the NFL, his first with the Packers, after 15 games played and seven regular-season starts, they set the stage for guys like Williams to want theirs.

He and they have a point.

How can the Packers give Grant his deal, yet refuse to give the same kind of deal to Williams after he did everything they asked of him for three seasons and he started more than twice as many games as Grant (20 - 10 last season)?

Can the Packers tell Williams that Grant was more valuable when he got his contract? I don’t think so.

Stay tuned. This will turn out to be an interesting result.

UPDATE (2:40 p.m.): Bedard reports Williams signed his $3.1 million tender offer before Tuesday's deadline. Strange that the Packers didn't, you know, immediately tell the NFL about this bit of news.